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LONDON: Manchester United on Tuesday announced plans to build a new 100,000-capacity stadium close to their historic Old Trafford home, which co-owner Jim Ratcliffe promised would be the “world’s greatest” football ground.
The momentous decision by the Premier League club comes after an extensive consultation process on whether to develop their creaking current ground or move.
The stadium, which will be built on land surrounding Old Trafford, will cost around £2 billion ($2.6 billion) and the project timescale is five years.
United, 20-time English league champions, are one of the world’s most iconic football clubs but have fallen behind rivals such as Manchester City and Liverpool over the past decade.
They are having a dismal season under current manager Ruben Amorim, languishing 14th in the Premier League table and knocked out of both domestic cup competitions.
Ratcliffe himself this week told the BBC some of the club’s players are “not good enough” and some are “overpaid.”
Scaled models and conceptual images for United’s new stadium were revealed on Tuesday at the London headquarters of architects Foster + Partners, appointed in September to design the stadium district.
“Today marks the start of an incredibly exciting journey to the delivery of what will be the world’s greatest football stadium, at the center of a regenerated Old Trafford,” Ratcliffe said in a club statement.
“Our current stadium has served us brilliantly for the past 115 years, but it has fallen behind the best arenas in world sport.”
United said the stadium and a wider regeneration project had the potential to deliver an additional £7.3 billion per year to the UK economy, including the possible creation of 92,000 new jobs.
Old Trafford, which has been the club’s home since 1910, will be demolished once construction is completed.
A joint task force was created last year to explore options for regenerating the Old Trafford area of Greater Manchester, with the stadium development at his heart.
It was led by Sebastian Coe, chairman of the organizing committee for the 2012 London Olympics, and also included the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham.
British billionaire Ratcliffe, born in Greater Manchester, said in London on Tuesday that United, as the “world’s favorite football club and the biggest in my opinion,” deserved a stadium befitting its stature.
Old Trafford is England’s biggest club ground with a capacity of around 74,000 but criticism of the stadium has grown in recent years, with issues including leaks from the roof.
The proposed new stadium will rank as Europe’s second biggest, behind only Barcelona’s Camp Nou, which will accommodate 105,000 fans once an upgrade is completed.
The move to a new ground has been backed by former United boss Alex Ferguson, who won 13 Premier League titles during his reign of nearly 27 years that ended in 2013.
“Old Trafford holds so many special memories for me personally, but we must be brave and seize this opportunity to build a new home, fit for the future, where new history can be made,” he said.
United, whose struggles on the pitch are matched by problems off it, are around £1 billion in debt and have yet to say how they will pay for the new stadium.
But chief executive Omar Berrada said he was confident the club would find a way to finance the stadium as it was a “very attractive investment opportunity.”
Foster + Partners designed the new Wembley stadium and the Lusail stadium, the venue for the 2022 World Cup final in Qatar.
Norman Foster, founder of Foster + Partners, said United’s new stadium would feature an umbrella design sheltering a public plaza that is “twice the size of Trafalgar Square” in London.
The design will feature three masts described as “Trident,” which the architects say will be 200 meters high and visible from 40 kilometers (25 miles) away.
The Manchester United Supporters’ Trust said it was vital that fans were consulted throughout the process.
The group said in a statement: “Will it drive up ticket prices and force out local fans? Will it harm the atmosphere, which is consistently fans’ top priority in the ground?
“Will it add to the debt burden which has held back the club for the last two decades? Will it lead to reduced investment in the playing side at a time when it is so badly needed?“